Any RC Advice for ESL test takers

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• 1 Like

  DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 7468 karma

  How long does it take you to read a passage?
  
  Are you skipping questions? You must skip questions. If you’re not getting to an entire passage, I’d encourage skipping up to 5 questions per section.
  
  You can’t change the fact that English is not your first language. All you can do is have an approach that minimizes the fallout from that characteristic.
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  thanks for commenting
  Reading a passage real fast without no notation, 3 to 3.5 minutes but for having a full understanding normally I need 5 to 5.5 min. I do not any skip question in the three passage I finish. Should I skip them base on their length? Should I aim for all 4 passages? or focus on 3?
• 1 Like

  stepharizona Alum Member

  February 2016 3197 karma

  @nader.parham said:
  Should I aim for all 4 passages? or focus on 3?
  

  It depends on the score you are hoping to get. I know many people that concentrate on the 3 passages that have the most questions, leaving the 4th passage with the fewest questions for last if they can get to it.
  
  If you only do 3, really focus on getting every question correct. Also try a few different notation strategies as you read. The more you practice the faster you will become.
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  @stepharizona said:
  If you only do 3, really focus on getting every question correct. Also try a few different notation strategies as you read. The more you practice the faster you will become.
  

  Thanks for the advice. I will try to apply these suggestions and see the results. Is it normal for native test takers to not be able to complete LR sections? I usually, only manage to answer 17-19 question per LR section. Do you think with such timing stats, a score 160-161 would be realistic.
  I scored Actual 150 and BR 161 on PT 70?
  
  I really appreciate your input on this
• 1 Like

  runiggyrun Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2481 karma

  @nader.parham, it would help to know a little more about your background - non-native speaker can mean a lot of different things, and they will influence how difficult it would be to get great at the test. I learned English in school, an hour a week for 8 years, and I moved to the US after university. The kind of "non-native" speaker I was then is very different from the one I am now, almost 20 years later. I'm sure nobody would cut me any slack now, but a lot of schools would have back then. I remember a blog from YLS's dean of admissions mentioning an ESL applicant and how impressed she was with her score in spite of her having learned English late in life, so it does somewhat matter.
  Your current command of English and your length of time to prepare for the LSAT also matter in how you approach RC/LR.
  I find that the passages and LR questions have a fairly repetitive structure, and a lot of somewhat overlapping topics (I think I read about various incarnations of the meteor theory of dinosaur extinction at least 4 times so far in different preptests). So with practice it's possible to get better, but it will take you more work than it would for a native speaker. In addition to the usual BR process, you have the additional task of figuring out "did I understand this correctly" - feel free to ask away if you have any questions.
  Try the memory method that JY suggests, and see how that works - it would involve reading the passage with a minimum of notation and focusing on understanding the structure. Some people find it easier to focus on content if they are making very few notes, others like to have everything underlined and circled using whatever system is clear to them (@Nicole Hopkins has such a system, and you can adapt it to suit your needs).
  If you have enough time to prep, you can try a few approaches and see what works better. I'd aim to look at all four passages, skipping time sink questions within each passage, and reassess closer to test date if you're still unable to get to all four.
  Outside of LSAT, you should start reading challenging texts in English - people usually recommend things like The Economist and Scientific American, but for a non-native speaker even reading newspapers or literature would help tremendously, because it would be more likely to keep your attention engaged while exposing you to new words, complex phrases and the use of language by real people, instead of text books. Always look up something you don't understand, or ask someone.
  And best of luck!
  
  
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  @runiggyrun, Thank you for a such detail comment. I would be grateful if you could further comment on my situation. I am 22 and start learning English when I was 16; I graduated from a British University. Regarding command of English,I fully understand passages my problem is speed.I am aiming for June or September this year. I usually study 40 hours each week for LSAT.
  I listen to economist every week for last two years.
  Would you recommend that I cut out science section of previous years and only read them?
• 2 Likes

  DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 7468 karma

  I think what @runiggyrun says is excellent advice, but I’d also advise skipping about 5-8 questions, depending on your average score (If you’re averaging -12 on RC, then planning on skipping 2 questions per section will give you more time to get to that 4th section and give you more time to answer questions you actually have a shot of answering to improve your score). I think not reading the 4th passage is a mistake. There are always a few questions that are time sinks in each passage. Start developing a sense of what those questions are. Know your limitations. Get the low-hanging fruit first, and then, if you have time left over, come back and go after those questions.
  
  I’d also get my hands on the LSAT Trainer if you haven’t already. Make sure you know how to read for reasoning structure. It’s vital.
• 1 Like

  DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 7468 karma

  @nader.parham said:
  Should I skip them base on their length?
  

  When I mean skip questions, I mean read them and decide somewhere in the reading of that question that your time could be spent best elsewhere. I’m not sure if question length is the best criteria (maybe it’s an easy question disguised by a lot of length). Test it out for yourself. Now you have a new goal for your BR. If you skipped a question, time yourself on BR for those questions to see if that was a smart skip or not. In my opinion, a win is getting a question wrong in 0:20 that gives me the opportunity to answer 3 other questions, and a loss is getting a question right in 3:30 that stopped me from looking at 3 other questions.
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  @DumbHollywoodActor thanks for the advice, that is a great idea I will time myself on questions that I did not answer during BR. One more question, can I know how long it normally takes you to answer a RC/LR question with easy to medium difficulty?
• 1 Like

  DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 7468 karma

  These are ideal and generalized, but they're decent heuristics. Obviously, this doesn’t happen all (or even most) of the time.
  For LR, easy questions - anywhere from 30-50 seconds, medium questions - below 1:20. Hard questions - :30 seconds, then skip, and whatever time I need to answer it after I’ve had eyes on all other questions..
  For RC, easy questions - 20-40 seconds, medium questions - 40- 60seconds.
  Hard questions - :20 seconds, then skip, and whatever time I need to answer it after I’ve had eyes on all other questions.
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  @DumbHollywoodActor Thanks for sharing the time frame, I think I should get use to skip questions.
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  Completing each RC problem sets takes me almost 2 hours (including BR and videos) but on syllabus it is indicated that it should take one hour. How long completing an RC problem set should take?
• 1 Like

  runiggyrun Alum Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2481 karma

  The syllabus BR time is just a suggestion, and if you're including watching the videos in the BR time, 2 hrs doesn't sound excessive. The wisdom here is that BR takes however long it takes.
  As for skipping questions, I second @DumbHollywoodActor's suggestion - ideally you decide to skip a question after you've read it, rather than based on an artificial formula like length, or "skip all science questions" or "skip all author's attitude questions".
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  @runiggyrun Thanks for answering my question.
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  @DumbHollywoodActor said:
  I’d also get my hands on the LSAT Trainer if you haven’t already
  

  I just bought the LSAT Trainer but, I already completed 40% of the syllabus, should I finish the syllabus and then read LSAT Trainer or I should read them together?
• 1 Like

  DumbHollywoodActor Alum Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 7468 karma

  Finish the curriculum, but maybe only do 1-2 LR problem sets instead of all of them. Just get a feel for the LR question types, then revisit another set or two after a corresponding chapter in LSAT Trainer.
• Not Ralph Nader Alum Member Inactive Sage Inactive ⭐

  February 2016 2098 karma

  Thanks for the advice; I will do that. I hope to Join the BR Group very soon